Construction - Train Oslo S to Stockholm Central
 

I am from Canada and have planned a trip from Bergen to Flam to Oslo and the only remaining booking that I have is for a train from Oslo to Stockholm. When I started this a few months back, it showed a couple of mid day runs on the schedules which would have worked great. Also, the website lead me to believe that I could not book until 60 days before departure. I have since discovered that there is rail construction near Stockholm which has affected the scheduling and at the moment I only find a train leaving about 6:00AM (too Early) and a second that leaves about 17:00 which gets us in too late. Also the trains are not going into Stockholm Central but going to Sodra station. We can navigate from there but just makes it later getting to our hotel. I was hoping that someone from Scandinavia would be able to check through local means and let me know if these are the only two runs available. Our planned date for 4 of us is July 13, 2018.

Thanks
Larry

Not sure what website you are using, I only use the official Swedish Railways website - if you plug in your dates and route, the website gives you a warning message about the track works taking place during the summer.

https://www.sj.se/en/home.html#/

The trains I see on July 13th are:
06:41 – 15:10 Travel time 8:29 h 2 changes (from Stockholm Södra local train to Stockholm City)
13:56 – 19:18 Travel time 5:22 h 1 change (from Stockholm Södra local train to Stockholm City)
13:56 – 21:15 Travel time 7:19 h 2 changes (from Bålsta station bus to Sthlm Cityterm.)
16:56 – 22:25 Travel time 5:29 h 1 change (from Stockholm Södra local train to Stockholm City)

You should be able to see all this at www.sj.se . The information available in Swedish is no different from the information available in English.

I would consider flying. Swedish trains are notorious for their lack of punctuality.

Going the other way I flew Stockholm to Bergen on Norwegian. It didn't sound like the scenery would be very interesting.

Thanks for the prompt comments. I have looked at this web site (https://www.sj.se/en/home.html#/) before and have now checked again. On July 13'th it shows all but the 06:41 train as being unavailable (why? I dont know). Because the trains go to the downtown areas which is where we want to be, and because I hate the hassle of airports (and also boring) we thought this would be our only chance to see Scandinavian countryside on this trip even if it may not be the most spectacular part of the country.

Thanks.

If there are any other suggestions (eg. other trains that might run this route), let me know.

Before you get to the July 13th details you see this:

" The Swedish Transport Administration will be working on the tracks south of Stockholm Central station from 25 June to 19 August, inclusive. Instead of Stockholm Central, south-bound trains will stop and depart from Stockholm Södra or Flemingsberg. "

The 6:41 train requires two changes to get to Stockholm Central, one of them at Stockholm Sodra. The following train, which requires only one change, at Stockholm Sodra, says: " Track work planning under way. Tickets will be available when planning is finished. "

It seems pretty clear that you are unlikely to get a direct train from Oslo to Stockholm on July 13th. You will have to change at least once, and you can't yet buy tickets for all of the trains. I don't know why you think there would be another train company that would be able to run trains on tracks that are being worked on.

According to SJ you will be able to buy tickets for the trains that are now unavailable, it says "Track work planning under way. Tickets will be available when planning is finished."
If the train is your preferred option just wait until the tickets go on sale.

The change to a local train shouldn't be too much of a hassle, but do keep in mind that you can always get off at Södra, it's in Södermalm in central Stockholm just a few minutes (max 10) from Stockholm C by car. Not sure you realise just how close Södra is to Stockholm C!

Thanks ticino - I did not realize that if I selected the unavailable route on the sj site that I would get the further explanation. As for Sodra station vs Central, I had checked that out before and can easily navigate from Sodra either by the 3 minute train ride or by cab (depending on schedule for train).

Other than air, I am hearing no other options. I am going to keep checking over the next few weeks to see if some of the trains don't become available (as you suggested). Otherwise - I may have to (regrettably) switch my plan to go air or a very early train.

I do see earlier that you refer to their "lack of punctuality". I hope this doesn't mean that they would do a complete cancellation once it had been successfully booked?

Larry

I wrote in my post that if you plug in your dates and route into the Swedish Railways website you get a warning messsge about the track works. The site also gives you general info under News of the expected works all over Sweden.

Swedish Railways are well known for being unreliable- I always advise flying for this reason. And you won’t know that your train is delayed or cancelled until you are waiting on the platform.

As far as I know cancellations are very rare. I mentioned punctuality as I know people that travel to Gothenburg 3-4 times a month and it sometimes happens that the train back to Stockholm arrives late, especially during the winter. The trains leave on time but then either stop or go very slowly for a while. In 4-5 years I can only recall one of them having to spend the night in Gothenburg because of a cancelled train, but it was weather-related and nothing was moving.

It used to be very rare to take the train between Stockholm and Oslo but now that there are faster trains (X2000) it has become more popular. I may even consider it myself the next time I go to Oslo as I am not a big fan of short flights.